The invention relates to a structural article, in particular an equipment article for the interior of a motor vehicle, consisting of a first, hard-elastic or plastically deformable carrier structure and of a second, soft-elastic component which is connected in one piece to the latter and which sealingly closes the carrier structure provided with recesses, and to a method for producing a structural article of this type, in which the hard-elastic or plastically deformable carrier structure provided with recesses and the soft-elastic component are preferably formed by injection molding.
The laid-open publication DE 197 52 786 A1 discloses a generic structural article and method. The structural article, designed as a storage compartment for a motor vehicle, consists of a trough-like inner part made from a soft plastic, for example from a thermoplastic elastomer, which is surrounded by a hard outer shell connected in a materially integral manner to the inner part. The outer shell has introduced into it U-shaped recesses which form hard-elastically resilient latching tongues provided with latching projections. From the inside of the storage compartment, the recesses are concealed completely by the trough-like inner part. A flexural deformation of the latching tongue causes a bulging of the inner part which, through the use of a soft-elastic material, does not result in any mechanical damage.
In the production of a structural article of this type, in the injection mold, first the inner part is formed onto a mold core in a cavity reduced in size, as compared with the desired contour, by the amount of the wall thickness of the hard component. Subsequently, the mold core, together with the soft inner part formed on it, is inserted into the mold nest of an enlarged casting mold. With the die closed, the gap remaining between the inner part and the mold nest can then be filled with the hard plastic.
This procedure has the fundamental disadvantage that a considerable amount of material has to be used for the comparatively costly soft component. It is therefore suitable only for structural articles in which the inner shell is to be lined over its entire area with a soft trough in order to improve handling.
The same document describes an already known method in which a storage compartment of this type is manufactured by the injection molding of the outer hard trough. After the mold core has been extracted, another mold core of smaller cross section is introduced into the trough interior, and the gap which occurs is filled with the soft component. In this case, in the applicant's opinion, it is absolutely necessary to prevent soft plastic material from running into exposed latching contours of the hard shell.
The object on which the invention is based is to provide a sealed structural article with deformable carrier structures, which structural article can be manufactured with a relatively small fraction of soft-elastic material component by means of a simple method having high process reliability.